-The Hindu   Three farmers committed suicide every day from February to May this year Mumbai: Three farmers committed suicide every day from February to May this year, the Maharashtra Legislative Council was informed on Tuesday. State Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Patangrao Kadam informed the council that 559 farmers had ended their lives in these four months. "Out of the total suicides, 85 were due to natural calamities such as hailstorms," Mr. Kadam said. The...

-The Hindu Business Line   Loan write-offs will become redundant if we have a robust crop insurance system The Chief Minister of residual Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu may have bought time in implementing his lavish pre-poll promise of waiving ₹54,000 crore worth of farm loans. The decision to appoint an expert committee to recommend guidelines on the waiver may well be a ploy to defer - even soften - the impact of...

-The Indian Express   We need better primary health centres more than AIIMS-like institutions. The ministry of health is reportedly planning to open 10 more AIIMS-like institutes as well as cancer centres in different states. Creating new cancer centres is desirable, given the burden of the disease and the inadequate number of treatment centres. Today, cancer is one of the main causes of premature mortality in our country, and the 25 regional cancer...

-Deccan Chronicle   The first time I ever had to get back to my car within five minutes of stepping out to cover an event was on April 7 this year. Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav was visiting the riot affected areas of Shamli and was scheduled to address a rally as a part of his political campaign. Teenage boys on tractors, young men on the roof of buses, men in the...

-The Hindu Business Line     A government run by a bevy of economists with no sense of the ground reality made mistakes. Some really big ones As the new government settles down to tackle the myriad problems confronting it, it's worth taking a quick glance at the principal reasons for the spectacular unravelling of the UPA-2 government. A defining characteristic of UPA-2 was that it was led by an economist and supported by prominent...